Frequency DistributionsABC/Washington Post Poll, December 200504525SociologyAttitudesUnivariate statisticsMethodsInter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. Frequency
Distributions: A Data-Driven Learning Guide. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for
Political and Social Research [distributor], 2009-04-16. Doi:10.3886/frequenciesGoal & Concept

Goal

This exercise provides an introduction to univariate analysis through frequency
distributions. You will learn why basic frequency tables are important and how they are
read and interpreted. The data used here give a sense of Americans' attitudes about the
President in 2005.

Concept

Frequency distributions are tables that tell something about a particular variable by
showing the number and percentage of people who chose a particular answer to the survey
question. Examining these tables gives researchers and readers an easy summary of
various characteristics of the people responding to the survey or question.

This allows for statements about the basic characteristics themselves and such tables
give researchers a bit more insight into the data, such as showing when there are not
enough people who answer a particular way or showing questions that a large number of
people didn't answer. For example, if a researcher wants to understand whether men and
women give different answers to questions about political attitudes, s/he would need to
first look at a frequency distribution for the sex of the sample to make sure the survey
includes both men and women and in large enough numbers to make comparisons between the
two groups. Likewise, perhaps individuals' ages have something to do with their
political beliefs. If a frequency distribution shows that there is no one over age 40 in
the sample, the researcher will know s/he must limit conclusions to individuals age 40
and under.

Finally, a frequency distribution is a good first step for researchers who want a sense
of the quality of their data. If too many people skip the question or if the frequency
distribution shows that people answered in a way that doesn't make sense (for example,
having a large number of people say they were older than 100 years), it will likely
cause the data user to examine what is happening in the data more closely to see if
there might be problems. This exercise will focus on reading basic frequency tables for
learning about people's opinions.

Dataset

This exercise makes use of the ABC/Washington Post poll conducted in December 2005. The study is part of a continuing series of monthly surveysthat solicit
public opinion on the current presidency and a range of other political and social
issues. Respondents were asked to give their opinions of President George W. Bush and
his handling of the presidency and issues such as the economy, health care, and the
situation in Iraq. Views were sought on the most important problem for President Bush
and Congress in the coming year, opinions about the war in Iraq, and respondents rated
their level of optimism in regard to issues such as the nation's defense against natural
disasters and possible terrorist attacks. Respondents were also asked for their feelings
about illegal immigration, abortion, and even whether they preferred the greeting "Merry
Christmas" or "Happy Holidays." Demographic variables include age, sex, race, education
level, voter registration status, household income, political party affiliation,
political philosophy, religious affiliation, type of residential area, and frequency of
religious service attendance.

Other surveys in the ABC/Washington Post poll series cover timely topics such as:
respondents' feeling about terrorism after 9/11 and the war in Iraq; attitudes about the
Catholic church's handling of the sex scandals, the government's response to hurricane
Katrina, illegal immigration, abortion, and the like.

The sample for the survey is persons aged 18 and over living in households with
telephones in the contiguous 48 United States.

This exercise will include the following variables:

Approval of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president (Q1)

Approval of the way Bush is handling the economy (Q2_2)

Approval of the way Bush is handling the situation in Iraq (Q2Z_1)

Approval of the way Bush is handling the U.S. campaign against terrorism (Q2_5)

Approval of the way Bush is handling immigration issues (Q2_6)

Approval of the way Bush is handling health care (Q2_3)

Application

To get a better sense of how the general public felt about George W. Bush (in December
2005), frequency distributions will be used. Each link will take you to a different part
of the analysis.

First look at how people felt about Bush in general. What percent strongly approved of
the job he was doing? How many people is that? Which answer category was the most
popular?

Perhaps the economy had something to do with these perceptions, so next look at how people felt about
Bush's handling of the economy. Do more people approve or disapprove of
the way he is handling the economy? Is the difference large?

Do opinions about the situation in
Iraq or the campaign against
terrorism seem similar to people's overall perceptions of the job Bush is
doing? How do people feel about these matters in comparison to their thoughts of Bush
overall? Out of the 995 people who answered the question about how Bush is handling the
situation in Iraq, how many people at least somewhat approve of how he's doing?

Overall, are people approving or disapproving of Bush's handling of domestic issues such
as illegal
immigration and health
care?

If you had to make a statement about how the general public felt Bush was doing in Dec.
2005, what would you say? Which frequency distributions look similar to others? What
story could you tell?

Interpretation & Summary

Think about your answers to the application questions before you click through to the
interpretation guide for help in answering them.

Weights (mathematical formulas) are often used to adjust the sample proportions,
usually by race, sex, or age, to more closely match those of the general population.
The analyses in this guide used weights to increase the generalizability of the
findings, so the resulting tables are meant to reflect the relationships we would
expect to see in the general population.

What percent of respondents strongly approved of the job Bush was
doing overall? How many people is that? Which answer category was the most popular?

Are there more people who approve or who disapprove of the way he is handling
the economy? Is the difference large?

How do people feel about Iraq and the campaign against terrorism in comparison to
their thoughts of Bush overall? (Are people generally as approving of these specific
issues as they are about Bush's job overall?) Out of the 995 people who answered the
question about how Bush is handling the situation in Iraq, how many people
at least somewhat approve of how he's doing?

Overall, are respondents approving or disapproving of Bush's handling of illegal
immigration and health care?

If you had to make a statement about how the general public felt Bush was doing in
Dec. 2005, what would you say? Which frequency distributions look similar to others?
What story could you tell?

Interpretation

Things to think about in interpreting the results:

Results from these data should be fairly representative of the general
population because it is a probability sample and weights were used to
create these frequency distributions. (Weights are used to adjust the sample
proportions, usually by race, sex, or age, to more closely match those of
the general population.)

In general, it looks as if the country was fairly split on approval of Bush
in 2005 - just under 50% approved of his handling of the job overall, the
economy, and the situation in Iraq. Slightly more approve of his handling of
the campaign against terrorism. However, the public seems to be less
favorable (less than 40% approval) about his handling of domestic issues
such as health care and immigration.

The support for Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq seems to pretty
closely mirror the perception of how well he's doing his job overall.

Finally, the questions that include 4-point answer scales (job overall and
dealing with Iraq) show something that is less commonly found in survey
research - often given many answer categories, respondents tend to choose
categories closer to the middle. In this case, the largest categories are
the endpoints, "Strongly Approve" and "Strongly Disapprove." People appear
to be fairly strong in their opinions on these issues.

Future analyses might include crosstabulations with demographic variables to
see whether people of different educational levels, political ideologies, or
genders feel differently about Bush's work. (Analyses not shown here
demonstrated expected relationships with political ideology and, to some
extent, education, and also show that women generally have slightly lower
levels of approval.)

Additionally, many of these questions were asked in all or most of the
ABC/Washington Post polls, so you can examine how attitudes may have shifted
over time - generally showing greater levels of disapproval in more recent
surveys compared to older polls.

Summary

The goal of this exercise was to assist in learning how to read basic frequency
distributions and examine simple graphic depictions of data. The choice of dataset
also allows one to examine general and specific attitudes about how well the
President is doing his job in handling various issues. Frequency tables are the
foundation of any higher-level data manipulation or analysis and therefore
understanding them is critical to being able to think and talk about data at all
levels.